Orphans

February 25, 2011
Patrick Day Introducing Anastasia Z.

This month I want to tell you about Anastasia (Nastya) Z, born January 4, 1995 in a small town outside of Ryazan, Russia. She is the oldest of five children and was taken to the Supozhoke Orphanage when she was 6 years old. She couldn’t understand why her mother took her to the orphanage and why she had to leave her brothers and sisters. She remained at the orphanage until she graduated last summer.

Her mother never came to visit her at the orphanage and she doesn’t know anything about her father. Nastya is very reluctant to talk about her mother– it is obviously a subject that it brings her much pain. She will only say that she is embarrassed that her mother “worked on the streets” and her brothers and sisters are all from different fathers.

Photo: Arina (on left) and Nastya

Nastya is easy going, positive, optimistic and a pleasure to be around. She has always been rather subdued, however, and you will never see her smile a big smile because her two front teeth are discolored, probably due to a poor diet when she was young. At the orphanage she did well in school and would participate in Sunday school and play sports that a Russian priest organized for the children.

Nastya considered herself to be Russian Orthodox, as most Russians do, if they are not atheists. Nina Petrov took Nastya to their farm during summer break, which she enjoyed, but it bothered her that they were “Baptists”. Last year when Nastya was finishing school at the Supozhoke Orphanage, Arina Poley (our “housemother” and an orphan herself) invited Nastya to live at the ROR apartment in Ryazan. Nastya was hesitant because she thought there would be too many “rules” but she wanted to be a nurse. Oleg and Nina Petrov helped get her into a medical school in Ryazan so she accepted Arina’s invitation.

I recently spoke with Arina and this is what she told me about Nastya: “Initially she found the adjustment very difficult but after about 6 months she changed dramatically. She started attending church regularly, enjoyed listening to the message and loves singing. One night she told me that she liked the way Baptists pray and now she was looking at things differently. I was happy but didn’t believe that she could be that committed. Then two weeks ago there was a Christian women’s conference in Moscow that we attended with Nina, and Alia (Nina’s daughter). While we were there Nastya told us that she forgave her mother completely and wanted to be baptized. I could see that she now had 100% faith! I was so happy that God gave us another sister in Christ! Praise God!”

January 23, 2011
Patrick Day Introduces Kolia B.

I would like to share about a young boy named Kolia who I met at the Supozhoke Orphanage about 9 years ago when he was in 5th grade. I had the privilege to sit in on an Algebra class (yes, 5th grade Algebra class) and the teacher asked if anyone would like to come up to the chalk board and write out the equation that she had started. Kolia was the only one to raise his hand so the teacher had him come up to complete the equation. After writing a whole bunch of gobbldy gook (to me) across the whole chalk board he turned to the teacher who said “correct”. Kolia smiled, blushed and walked back to his seat and sat down. I was amazed!

Kolia is the second to the youngest of 5 children. Both of his parents were alcoholics and when Kolia was 4 years old his mother killed his father. Kolia and his sister Sveta, who was 2 years old at the time, were taken from the home and put into the Russian orphanage system. Kolia has two older brothers who are both unemployed alcoholics and an older sister he has never seen again. His mother’s whereabouts are unknown. When he is asked about what he remembers about living at home he lowers his head and shuts his mouth…too much pain…end of discussion.

At the orphanage Kolia always did well in school and was almost always one of the “good kids”. When he was 15 he tried being one of the “cool kids” who smoked and drank but that didn’t last long.

When the Petrov’s visited the orphanages on Sundays to present their program Kolia was always there and was one of Oleg and Nina’s favorites because he was sincerely interested in learning about Christ. He would spend summers working at the Petrov’s farm and accepted Christ into his life and was baptized in the summer of ’08. He is now 21 years old, living in Ryazan and studying to be a dentist.

Please keep Kolia in your prayers. He is a very smart young man with a bright future who loves the Lord and can be an inspiration to the younger children still living in the orphanage.